Nathanael tiptoed into the bedroom and I felt his eyes on me before I was fully aware of his presence. It’s a rather unpleasant feeling to be watched while you’re asleep.

“What’s the matter?”

“I don’t feel so good” he whispered.

“Do you have a headache?”

“No.”

“A tummy ache?” I clumsily reached up to feel his forehead which was cool
and damp.

“No.”

“Worried about making the mortgage payment?”

(pause)

“No.”

“Did you have a bad dream?”

“Yeah.”

I’m so glad that I’m his soft place to land. It’s one of those special mother privileges that I’ve never taken for granted. I just had to get up and write about it so I can remember this feeling when my nest is empty.

“Mom.”

“What, Scooter?”

“Your typing is keeping me awake.”

Yeah. Parenting. The hardest job I’ll ever love.

She started asking when she was fourteen years old. Kaitlyn wanted a belly button piercing more than life itself but I put her off by saying that there was no way she was getting one before turning eighteen because I could not be convinced to sign the consent form.

On the record…it was still a stupid thing to do. Off the record…I’m so glad I got to be there.

Wow did this help me to gain perspective today! I woke up this morning determined to have a thankful heart and to practice abiding in Christ…ready to walk out my faith in each and every moment.

Then one of my kids pissed me off with a snide comment. Ha. Something small threw me off track and set in motion this whole self pity thing. My sky became partly cloudy rather than partly sunny.

Ever have the best intentions for your day and end up feeling like a failure wondering what went wrong? It’s so easy for me to get discouraged. That’s why, when I opened my email and discovered that Mom had sent me a link to this video, it was the perfect timing. I had to get my focus back on Him and off myself or my ever-so-rude child who ended up spending time at the kitchen table thinking of different ways to express anger.

I’ve read that God’s mercies are new every morning, but today I discovered they are new every minute. Thank God for do-overs.

Last Saturday we decided to pick strawberries as a family. It immediately turned into a contest of “who could pick the most… the fastest”. Since I had Nathanael and Daniel on my team, and had to look at each and every strawberry treasure they picked, we promptly lost.

I didn’t care.

This didn’t go unnoticed by the army of sugar ants camped outside of my house during the summer months. They have launched their assault on my sanity by forming a never ending stream through some undiscovered crack in our perimeter. Now my home smells of strawberry jam and bleach.